Who I Am Now
by alphayamergo
Summary: Four and a half years after Angel is taken, Max permanently moves to Paris under the false name of Ariadne Bishop, trying to find her Angel. Oneshot - AriadnexArthur.


**I do not own Maximum Ride or Inception. If I did, I would be rich/famous, and, unfortunately, I am not.**

…**I have no idea where this came from. Not a single clue. But I love it, anyway.**

Max changes her name and moves to Paris permanently four and a half years after Angel goes missing.

She knows it's stupid to stick around Paris - the Doomsday cult would have moved her long ago - but she can't help hoping. So she remains in Paris, studying architecture under the name of Ariadne Bishop.

By the time she turns twenty one, she catches herself thinking on a regular basis that she wishes it's her real name.

…Because if it was, Max wouldn't know the grief of loosing your baby girl twice, having your heartbroken twice, and have your sister and mother disappear before you turn sixteen.

When she contacts the flock for the first time in months and says it hurtshurt_hurts_, the flock agrees.

* * *

><p>Max - no, Ariadne, because that's her name now and she likes it that way - gets a job offer from a man named Dominic Cobb three years after she moves to Paris. When she learns about extraction, she agrees to the job with an idea slowly taking place in her mind.<p>

Because, somehow, she might be able to get back her baby, her little Angel - or not so little now - using these skills.

Her plan is almost fully formed when she's blindsided.

She meets the man of her dreams.

…And yes, she means that in the cheesy romance sense, not the we-literally-shared-dreams-together sense - though they did do that, too.

* * *

><p>Ariadne sometimes wonders if the flock would hate the new her. Ariadne's not Max. She's far more gentle than Max ever was, but she most definitely has a lot of the anger and hate Max contained. Ariadne's more willing to look at the big picture, more willing to add up all the details to make a whole.<p>

…Max also wouldn't say yes when Arthur asked her on a date.

Ariadne spends a long while in front of the mirror - yikes, she really is different from fourteen-year-old Max - and has a fantastic time with Arthur.

Four months later, he admits that he loves her.

When she says she loves him back, Ariadne doesn't mention the boy who left her for her clone or the boy who was made for her - but died before they could really start to feel something.

She doesn't need to, because neither of them matter now.

* * *

><p>The team gets another job. It's simple enough, and they're all there - except for Cobb, of course, who's still too occupied with his children to even <em>think<em> of doing another job. They should be able to do it without a problem.

Then Arthur tells Ariadne the name of the company they're working for. She finds out the name is ITEX and as soon as possible, she finds herself back in her apartment, screaming.

Because she's scared that she'll loose the life she built up from nothing.

Because she's scared that she'll loose her friends.

Because she's scared that she'll loose Arthur.

Because she's scared that they'll think she's nothing but a _mutant._

But when the job's finished and there's still no information about Angel, it's Roland ter Borcht that thanks them.

And he whispers in her ear, "It's been a while, Max."

When they're walking out, Arthur asks her why she's so white.

* * *

><p>The same night, she finally shows him her wings. They're even larger then they were when she was fifteen and she can't help the rather triumphant runaway thought: <em>'I bet even Iggy can't compete with me now when it comes to wing-span.'<em>

She tells him of the fourteen year old girl who was told she had to save the world. She tells him of the fourteen year old girl who spent so many months - years, even - she spent on the run. She tells him of the girl who led a flock of winged mutants.

And she tells him of the girl who lost her baby, and has been trying to find her ever since.

"I knew there was something extraordinary about you," Arthur murmurs into her ear. "And I loved you more because of it."

…She thinks she loves him even more, now.

* * *

><p>There's a surprise face at their wedding.<p>

It's Jeb. Ariadne has no idea how he found out, but he turns up an hour before it starts and tells her he'll walk her down the aisle. He also tells her to look up.

Above her, there are five birds circling.

…Except their not birds.

After Ariadne and Arthur say their I do's, she takes him out into the woods - meeting Star, Kate and Ratchet on the way, and calls down her flock, her former love and her clone.

"Max! Max!" shouts Nudge as she lands, tumbling over in her excitement. "We've missed you!"

She's corrected with a mild, "It's Ariadne, now" but the hug Nudge receives is as enthusiastic as any of Max's would be.

When Arthur tells her later that he got threatened at least three times by all of them, she can't help but grin.

* * *

><p>Six months later, the newly married couple receives another job offer, this time from the American government.<p>

They are told they have captured a terrorist, who is bent on killing off all humans, and they want to know if he's working with others.

Ariadne recognises him almost immediately as one of the Doomsday Cult's leaders. She's fairly sure his name is Mark, but it was nine years ago now, and though Max probably would have remembered this, Ariadne isn't one for names, and so it's rather vague.

Arthur helps her extract information about Angel without alerting Eames, Yusuf and their latest extractor. It's quite difficult, but she manages to make the page with Angel's info and the one with the information about the DD cult (which she's been calling them for a while) as the same sheet of paper.

They return to their hotel room and Ariadne finds out where Angel has been hidden for the past nine years.

She spends almost an hour crying in relief.

Four days later, she's assembled an army of what's left over in the two flocks. Together they raid Angel's prison, and Ariadne realizes just how much she has changed from the days she was Max and now.

* * *

><p>Angel sobs into Ariadne's chest when they finally reach the hotel. Ariadne cries, too, looking at the sixteen year old girl who had to spend so long braving the whitecoats by herself. Arthur leaves his awkward stance by the door to wrap his arms around his wife in way of comfort.<p>

Gazzy sits next to Angel, clutching her hand tightly. Nudge stands behind her, silent tears running down her own face while she tries to hold it together. Iggy's arms clutch at Nudge, the two finding solace together. The guilt on Fang's face can be seen by all - such a change from the emotionless teenager Ariadne knew nine years ago. Maya, Star, Kate and Ratchet stand against the wall with impassive faces - but Ariadne can tell that they're finding it as hard as the rest of us to reconcile the seven year old girl they knew with the teen that is now clutching on to her like her life depends on it.

Finally, Angel recovers enough to start asking questions. First she asks Ariadne who Arthur is - she looks puzzled when the Architect tells her he's her husband, and asks where Dylan has gone. Then she asks how many years have gone by - she's shocked to find out that she's missed nine years. She asks about Ella, Dr Martinez and Jeb. It's painful to tell her that they had completely disappeared with the remainders of the DD cult, but she's glad to hear the shred of good news about Jeb.

And so it begins. Angel floods each of them with questions, provides healthy, new opinions over troubles that have been haunting the groups, and she provides squeals over rings and other thing - like Aridne's wedding ring, or Maya's or Nudge's engagement ring.

She practically moves in with the Ariadne and Arthur in their apartment in Paris, though she stills floats to the house Nudge, Gazzy and Iggy share in England. They're perfectly happy to have her there, and she's constantly badgering them about attending high school and college. After a few months to let her catch up with the world, Ariande lets her.

She studies chemistry, mainly, but she's picks up a love for architecture from her sister-slash-mother-figure. She's great at creating new things, but she's even better when it comes to sedatives.

Arthur tells Ariadne that it seems Yusuf has competition. She agrees, telling him that she thinks they should introduce her to the concept of shared dreaming. They both know she'll find it eventually, with her skills at both architecture and chemistry. So the Point Man and Architect invite Eames, Yusuf and Cobb (and Phillipa and James by extension) to our place - they both regret it now, by God it was chaos, what with trying to Arthur and Eames from killing each other, keeping James and Phillipa from 'accidentally' annoying the neighbors and other things - to help.

Angel takes to it like a bird to air. She quickly gains a spot on the team, an extra that helps out with the sedatives needed and the maze designs. She's quick thinking and has gotten out of several bad situations that could have ended with somebody in Limbo. She could easily make it as a lone wolf, but she chooses to stay with the two that have been taking care of her since she escaped from the prison the DD cult placed her in.

Angel's changing, now. Ariadne wonders if she's undergoing the same one she did years ago, that started with Max, the world's savior and leader of a flock of mutants, and ended with Ariadne the Architect.

Angel's name always stays the same, though.

"You know," Ariadne says to Arthur when they finally leave the warehouse one late night, "I used to wonder if the flock would have hated me for how different I was to Max the Leader."

"And now?" Arthur asks, knowing perfectly well that the flocks still love Ariadne, even though she was different from the girl they once knew.

"Now, I could really care less." Ariadne flashes him a brilliant smile. "My life's pretty damn perfect right now. I know the flock loves me… but if they decide that I've changed to much, then I don't give a damn." They walk into the apartment and Angel bounced out to meet them, telling them about something she and Yusuf had figured out earlier.

"This is who I am now, and they can take it or leave it."


End file.
